Boxed In - Clouis OneShot
by GoofyGomez
Summary: Clementine and Louis are on their way to hunt some food for the kids, but get trapped by a herd. To kill time, they must succumb to the worst: Louis's card games! Rated T for strong language and depiction of violence.


"So how'd you sleep?"

Clem was pulled out of her thoughts by Louis's voice, and she looked to her left. The boy was swaggering along the path, 'Chairles' in his hand and a grin on his face. They'd been assigned together for hunting duties, as Aasim had sprained his wrist on the last party he led. And so, Marlon had paired his best friend with the new girl, who was proving to be a much more capable than all the other kids combined.

Clementine soon realized that she hadn't graced Louis with a response, so she said, "fine, I guess. No nightmares, so that's a plus," she sighed and kept her gaze forward.

Louis frowned at the cynical answer, and opted not to comment on it. An awkward silence descended between them, and Clem took a long breath again.

"You?" she asked, glancing to her left and raising an eyebrow at the boy.

"Just peachy," he replied, excited that she'd even continue the conversation. "Which is weird since I've never had peaches, so how would I know I sleep peachy?" he wondered out loud, scratching his chin slowly. A smile tugged at Clem's lips, and she let out a throaty chuckle.

"Are you always such a dork?" she teased, picking up the pace as they approached the designated hunting grounds.

"Exclusively," he replied proudly, puffing out his chest. "Though apparently you dig that, so I guess I'll never stop," he added with a wink. They'd arrived at the stop, and had started setting the traps straight again.

Clementine rolled her eyes, but smiled at the remark nonetheless. It had been two weeks since they'd shared their feeling for each other, and Louis never missed an opportunity to remind her of it. She didn't mind, though; it was endearing, she thought.

She was about to retort when a low growl caught her attention. She sprung to action, grabbing her knife from her belt and standing her ground. Louis followed her lead and raised 'Chairles' over his head, scanning the trees for danger.

After a few minutes of silence, it seemed danger was the only thing they could see. They could see walkers slowly trickling into the clearing, blocking out every conceivable path back. Clem cursed under her breath as she disposed of a corpse with ease.

"See if you can find an opening!" she warned Louis, her golden eyes darting from side to side, searching for a big enough window for them.

They kept swinging and stabbing for a few minutes until Louis yelled, "There!"

He was pointing at a spot to her right, where the herd had thinned out slightly. Pushing through with difficulty, they slipped past them and began sprinting with no real destination in mind. Luck was not on their side, however, as they were cut off yet again by a group of walker seemingly larger than the last.

Clem looked around frantically, searching for any sort of escape. Her eyes widened as she found a dilapidated old van with its windows still intact. Instructing Louis to follow her, she forced the side door open and lunged inside. As the boy followed her lead, they shut the door tight and scrambled back, hoping against hope that it would hold.

Fortunately for them, it did. Clem could hear the walker banging on the side of the van, too many to fight through. They were trapped.

"Fuck," she swore, swiping sweat from her forehead and checking herself for bites. Luckily, she was fine and so was Louis.

"Fuck is right," he said, letting out a sigh and looking around the crammed space. The back of the van had enough wiggle room for them to sit comfortably, and the front seats were rotten to hell. _Cozy,_ he thought to himself.

"Look around, might as well check what we can find in here," she instructed, checking the back of the van for supplies.

She found nothing useful, other than a couple of expired candy bars and an empty water bottle.

"Might come in handy later," she reasoned, turning around to check on Louis. He was sitting cross-legged with a smile on his face. _Damn him, why does he have to be so cute?_ She though ruefully. "What're you smiling at?" was all she said.

"You're cute when you're worried," he told her, cocking his head to the side.

"Of course I'm worried, Louis! We're trapped in here for God knows how long and there's a herd out there trying to eat us," she exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air.

"True, but we're safe in here," he replied, raising an eyebrow, "we might as well wait it out."

Clem scoffed and crossed her arms, but agreed nonetheless. "I guess you're right."

Louis nodded and straightened himself. "How about we play a game?" he suggested.

"What game do you want to play?" Clem asked warily.

"Truth or Drink!" he announced, producing from his coat pocket a deck of cards.

"Do you just carry that around everywhere?" she asked, eyeing the cards with raised eyebrows.

"Of course, you never know when the opportunity might arise to play a little game," he explained, as if that was the most obvious answer in the world.

Clementine rolled her eyes and sat down opposite him, before realizing a major flaw in his plan. "Wait, how do we play Truth or Drink without a drink?" she asked him.

" _Au contraire, mon Cherie,_ " he said with a heavy French accent. He fumbled around behind him, where the dashof the van was, and produced a sealed bottle of what looked like wine. "The finest wine in West Virginia."

She eyed the bottle carefully and heaved a sigh. It might not be all that bad.

"Fine, I'll play along," she conceded, rolling her eyes and extending her hand. He nodded once more and handed her half the deck of cards. They flipped the first card of each deck and showed it to the other. Clem was sporting a miserable five of spades, while Louis's king of hearts laughed at it.

"I am the greatest card player of all time," he declared importantly, puffing out his chest and laughing. Though she was laughing too, she urged him to ask a question.

"Okay, first and foremost, what's up with your hat?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You seem pretty fond of it."

Clem furrowed her brows and looked down at the ground. It was true, she thought. She had been through hell and back, but that hat had stayed on through thick and thin. It was her most prized possession, although she didn't have many of those to begin with.

"It belonged to my dad," she said finally, "He gave it to me and told me to hold onto it until they came back from their holidays. They never did, though."

Louis flinched and gave her a sad smile. "I'm sure he would be happy you kept it with you all these years…" he offered lamely.

"Yeah, you're right," she said, smiling a bit despite herself. it was the only thing she had of her parents, and she would treasure it forever.

"Right, um, round two," said Louis, flipping another card and revealing the seven of hearts. Clem did the same and showed him the jack of diamonds.

"I win."

"So you do, ask away," he replied.

"Okay, I have to ask, what's your deal with Cantaloupe? Why do you hate it so much?" she cocked her head and grinned at him, imagining the stupidest reason possible.

"What's there to say, it's disgusting," he said it like it was so obvious, yet it made Clem chuckle.

"Come on, there's lot of more disgusting things than fruit," she countered, picturing some of the worst meals she'd had while living on the road.

"It's just, my mom made me eat it when I was like five, and I never wanted to. She'd put a bowl of cantaloupe in front of me on the table and wouldn't let me get up until I ate a slice."

"Gotta eat your greens," she teased.

"Maybe, but I wasn't about to eat that green. Once I stayed there all night, just to prove to her that I wouldn't budge," he said proudly.

"Did it work?"

"She gave up after the third time I did that," he confessed.

They had a good laugh about that, and kept on playing. Most of the questions were silly and mostly unimportant; birthdays and the sort. It kept them busy though, and that was what mattered. They'd even forgotten that drinking instead of answering was a valid choice, and that led to some heartfelt answers.

After a good number of rounds, Louis got the high card yet again.

"Ask away," said Clem, rather enjoying herself.

Louis fiddled with the hem of his coat and looked down awkwardly. He stuttered a couple of time before drawing a breath and asking his question, "How come you never talk about Lee? What was he like?"

Clem was taken aback by the question, and she had to fight the urge to turn around and ignore him. She hadn't thought about Lee for some time, and the memories flowed back into her mind: the time she rescued him from her babysitter, the time he protected her from the herd of walkers outside the Marsh House. And the time she had to end his suffering…

"You don't have to answer, Clem," Louis reminded her, seeing her expression. It was clearly a sensitive topic for her, and he wasn't going to overstep his boundaries.

"No, it's okay," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Lee was – he was great. He taught me about survival when all of this started. How to shoot a gun. How to keep my hair short," she listed the lessons Lee had taught her, and saddened as she remembered the most important one. "How to say goodbye."

Louis had stayed silent while she explained, and his features had contorted to form a sad expression. He wanted to sympathize with her, to tell her it would be fine. But he didn't know. He had never known that kind of pain, and it killed him to see her so upset about it. Cursing himself for bringing it up, he said, "You loved him."

"I did," she agreed, a sad smile on her face.

Searching for a way to lighten the mood, Louis's face lit up. He leaned in and asked, "what's your best memory of him?"

At that moment, Clem smiled. A real smile; the one that only AJ ever got to see these days. She racked her brain for an answer and nodded when she found it, "once, I lost my hat somehow. I told Lee, and he went out of his way to find it in some raider camp. It was abandoned, he said, but I'll always remember that."

"I wish I could have met him," said Louis, glancing at Clem from the corner of his eye.

"Me too."

They kept on playing, drawing two more cards. This time, Louis was the clear loser.

"Why are you troubled youth?" she asked him. This time it was Louis's turn to flinch. "if you don't mind my asking."

Louis drew a breath and nodded, "it's okay. My dad, he – he wasn't a nice guy," was all he said.

Clem was scared to keep digging, but his change in demeanor had surged a morbid curiosity to swell inside her. "What do you mean, he wasn't a nice guy?"

"Well, when I did something stupid or irresponsible, which I did all the time, he'd get really angry. Most of the time he'd just yell at me until his voice was hoarse."

Clementine studied his face as he spoke, and could see the venom in his words as he talked about his father. It was a great change from the laid-back Louis she had grown to know and love. _Did I just say that out loud?_ she thought _,_ her eyes widening. _No, I just thought that. Concentrate, Clementine!_

"But sometimes, he'd up the ante a bit. Sometimes using his fists, others the belt," he explained, his chocolate brown eyes never meeting her golden ones. She knew they were filled with sorrow and anger, and she did the only thing she could think of doing. She leaned forward and hugged him.

At first, Louis stiffened at the sudden show of affection. But barely seconds later, he relaxed and let himself sink into the embrace. Due to their height difference, her head with perfectly nested in the crook of his neck. His long arms made their way around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

"I'm so sorry, Louis. That's horrible," she kept saying, fighting tears that welled in her eyes.

"It's okay, Clem. You've lived through so much worse, I imagine," he reasoned, kissing the top of her head softly. That calmed her down somewhat.

"Even so, I never been hit by someone I loved…" she said, her voice catching in her throat.

Louis decided to let her have this, and instead opted for enjoying their hug. The cards lay forgotten on the floor, and the bottle of wine left unopened. The couple stayed silent for a long time, the only sound the groans and moans of the walkers still surrounding the van.

The following morning, Clementine was jerked awake by Louis, who was poking her in the face. She looked around and rubbed the sleep from off her face.

"Why'd you do that?" she asked, squinting at him in disgust. She clearly wasn't a morning person.

"The smelly patrol is gone, we're free," he informed her.

"And you had to poke me to wake me up?" she inquired, sitting up and stretching. She opened the side door of the van and squinted when the sun hit her face. It was probably ten or eleven in the morning, Clem guessed.

"I tried it more gently, but you're a heavy sleeper," he told her.

"I only sleep 'heavy' when I don't have nightmares," she shot back with a small smile. They walked out and got their bearings before starting the walk to the school.

"I'm gonna guess that's a good thing," he said, a lopsided grin forming on his tired face. Clem took a moment to stop and look at him. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he kept suppressing yawns, mostly unsuccessfully.

"Did you sleep last night?" she asked, a concerned motherly look on her face.

"Someone had to take first watch," Louis said, nodding at her.

"But you didn't wake me up for the second watch," she said incredulously.

"Well, I may have taken all watches and let you have some sleep," he admitted, scratching the back of his head and looking awkwardly up into the sky.

"Louis, you're such a…" she started but stopped mid-sentence. She thought for a moment before coming up with a better answer. Clem stood on tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Slowly, she pressed her mouth to his in a tender kiss that seemed to fill Louis with some backup energy he didn't even know he had.

"What was that for?" he asked, still smiling from the kiss.

"For being such a dork."


End file.
